MIDDLE EAST

Death toll from Iran flooding rises to 44: Officials

The official death from this week's wave of torrential flooding in Iran rose to 44 on Thursday.

Iran's Mehr News Agency quoted Hamidreza Khankeh, deputy head of Iran's emergency directorate, as saying that 21 people had been killed in Fars province; seven in Golestan province; five in Mazandaran province; three in North Khorasan province; two in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province; two in Lorestan province; and one each in the Kermanshah, Khuzestan, Semnan and Hamadan provinces.

An estimated 47,000 others, according to Khankeh, have been hospitalized after suffering injuries.

On Wednesday, local officials said that the flooding -- triggered by excessive rainfall -- had caused some $170 million worth of material damage.